How These Top Companies are Getting Inclusion Right

This week’s Friday resource comes from Fast Company and highlights the ways top companies have achieved results through their inclusion strategies.

Inclusion produces a domino effect with more than one benefit: it creates a culture where employees feel encouraged, appreciated, and engaged, which leads to more innovation and collaboration, which then leads to positive results for the bottom line.

Creating an inclusive culture requires a proactive approach on behalf of HR and leadership. Unfortunately, many traditional diversity and inclusion programs are ineffective and fail to address factors that are key when attempting to create cultural shifts.

Per Gwen Moran, Fast Company, here are some often overlooked strategies from top companies who have successfully transformed their organization’s culture into one of inclusion and diversity:

1. Emphasize from the start.

"At Johnson & Johnson, communicating the importance of inclusion is critical. At every level of training, diversity and inclusion are emphasized. 'As we are going through our talent process throughout the year, whether goal setting or coaching conversations or a mid-year review, we’re always giving out training materials, and we’ve embedded diversity and inclusion into those materials so that people are always thinking about how they can be more inclusive and making sure that there aren’t any hidden biases that may be impacting our thinking,' says Wanda Hope, chief diversity officer.

Johnson & Johnson regularly communicates the organizational commitment to diversity, both internally and externally. In addition, such communication can help attract a more diverse talent pool."

2. Make it a performance marker.

"Inclusion leaders also have other mechanisms in common: feedback mechanisms and accountability. At EY, Johnson & Johnson, and others, managers have clear diversity and inclusion goals, and fulfilling them is part of their performance review.

But it’s not just a stick without a carrot. EY’s team recognizes managers who are good at fulfilling those goals. 'In our organization, those executives that do really well and continue to advance further and faster are those that include acumen around inclusive leadership on their client serving team. It’s also critical for advancement and success in addition to day-to-day performance,' says Karyn Twaronite, EY partner and global diversity and inclusiveness officer."

3. Create community.

"At AT&T, having 'a true culture of inclusion where every voice matters' is one of the reasons the company has been so successful in its diversity and inclusion initiatives, says Cynthia Marshall, senior vice president, human resources and chief diversity officer. Over the past decade, the company has created a dozen employee resource groups (ERGs) and employee networks (ENs). ERGs are nonprofit groups that provide support, advocacy, education, mentoring, and more to groups such as women, generations, military veterans, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT community. ENs are more informal, typically focus on business or professional development issues, and are developed with cross-functional diversity as a priority."